Sensitivity of Neuroimaging Indicators in Monitoring the Effects of Interferon Gamma Treatment in Friedreich’s Ataxia

Marinela Vavla, Filippo Arrigoni, Nicola Toschi, Denis Peruzzo, Maria Grazia D’Angelo, Sandra Gandossini, Annamaria Russo, Eleonora Diella, Stefania Tirelli, Roberto Salati, Alessandra Rufini, Ivano Condo, Roberto Testi and Andrea Martinuzzi; Front. Neurosci., 09 October 2020; doi:10.3389/fnins.2020.00872 

Advanced MRI imaging (diffusion tensor imaging, DTI; functional MRI, fMRI; and resting-state fMRI, rs-fMRI) and retinal imaging (optical coherence tomography, OCT) were tested longitudinally in a small group of Friedreich’s ataxia patients participating in an open-label clinical trial testing the safety and the efficacy of 6-month treatment with interferon gamma. Preliminary data encourage the use of MRI, in particular fMRI, as a non-invasive method to monitor treatment response in FRDA and to achieve a better understanding of the physiology behind the observed treatment-induced effects.